During the past two days the first annual Asia Online Game Conference (AOGC) was held in Tokyo. Admission was priced at 7000 yen, and visitors were treated to lectures by various prominent members of the Asian gaming community, who spoke mostly about the business and research aspects of online gaming. "Business Strategies for Online Games," "Online Games as an Educational Tool," and "Marketing and Distribution Techniques" were among the multitude of topics covered. Koei spoke up about the developing market in China as well, stating their intent to distribute new games both there and in South East Asia.

Yoichi Wada, president of Square Enix, was present at the conference, where he gave a general presentation on several of Square Enix's online business practices. Naturally, no company secrets were disclosed, but Wada delineated a fairly decent picture of the current status of the online gaming industry.

Obviously, Japan was not the only participant. Korea also commanded a sizable presence at the conference, giving three speeches on the first day, which were concerned with such issues as the pros and cons of Real Money Trade in MMOs.

As the title states, the AOGC was focused mostly on the Eastern side of online gaming. Aside from a few mentions of American and European sales successes and failures, the growing problems with compulsive players, and the real-life crimes inspired by FPSs, information on the Western side of online gaming was sparse.